KIGALI (Reuters) - To much of the outside world, Paul Rusesabagina is a hero who saved 1,200 people from genocide in events depicted in the Oscar-nominated film "Hotel Rwanda."

But as the genocide's 13th anniversary approaches in his native Rwanda, a bitter row has erupted between Rusesabagina and critics, including President Paul Kagame, who say he is profiting from the victims' misery and rewriting Rwanda's history for his own gain.

Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered in 100 days in the central African nation from April 6, 1994.

Soldiers of the then Hutu-led government and ethnic militia allies orchestrated the genocide in which victims were hacked to death with machetes, burned alive or shot.

The 2004 movie depicting Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who used his connections with the Hutu elite to protect Tutsis fleeing militiamen, echoed Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List," the story of a businessman saving 1,100 Jews from the Nazis.

Rusesabagina received the United States' highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for heroism during Rwanda's dark days.

But back home, he has sparked outrage with warnings of another genocide, this time by Tutsis against Hutus, and for claims that war crimes by Tutsis during the 1994 conflict were being overlooked by biased traditional courts.

"Rusesabagina is no Schindler," columnist Job Jabiro wrote in Rwanda's New Times daily in February.

Rusesabagina, who lives in Belgium with his family and tours Western countries lecturing, says critics are waging a campaign against him for airing what he calls uncomfortable truths.

'HOLLYWOOD FICTION'

Many events in the film directed by Terry George and starring Don Cheadle were based on Rusesabagina's memoirs, yet survivors of the Hotel des Mille Collines have disputed Rusesabagina's version of events.

Pasa Mwenenganucye was a receptionist, portrayed in the film as Gregoire, a hedonistic worker who occupies the presidential suite and sips champagne as killings escalate.

"The movie is Hollywood fiction. If it's (supposed to be) a true story, then it's a basket of lies," he told Reuters.

Mwenenganucye, furious at the way he was portrayed, accused Rusesabagina of kicking out refugees who failed to pay their bills, a charge Rusesabagina denies.

"To such people I tried to be fair," Rusesabagina told Reuters in a phone interview. "But they were celebrating, serving themselves from the cellar. No survivor has said 'he charged and kicked me out for not paying'."

Shortly after the premiere of the film, which was shot in South Africa, Rwanda's President Kagame, a Tutsi, called it a "falsehood," saying Rusesabagina was not an appropriate symbol of heroism.

The killings ended when Tutsi rebels, led by Kagame, seized control and triggered an exodus of more than 2 million Hutus.

Rusesabagina, whose father was Hutu but mother and wife were Tutsi, said Kagame was jealous of the limelight: "He has taken himself to be the only hero."

Tempers boiled over last January when Rusesabagina warned in a Reuters interview that Rwanda could be headed for another round of bloodletting unless Kigali stops punishing killers from "only one side" of the deadly conflict.

Rusesabagina said justice for the 100,000 mostly Hutus tried in traditional Gacaca courts had been "slow and biased," punishing Hutu killers but overlooking Tutsi war crimes.

HATE SPEECH

Critics have since spewed vitriol at Rusesabagina, accusing him of voicing the anti-Tutsi hate that fanned the genocide.

Rusesabagina shrugs off such charges: "If I really wanted Tutsis killed, I could have done it at the time."

Others accuse him of creaming money from the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation charity.

"Ask him what he has done for survivors from whose story he's making that money," said Odette Nyiramirimo, who survived the genocide at Rusesabagina's hotel.

"I'm helping other humanitarian organizations with it," Rusesabagina replies. "I can't go to Rwanda personally because of my own security. There's a government campaign against me."

Rusesabagina accuses Kagame of secretly arming Tutsi militias, set up for community policing, against Hutus.

"Before 1994 it was a Hutu militia group -- today it's the local defense forces, a Tutsi militia, which is intimidating and killing people on hills of Rwanda," Rusesabagina told Chicago public radio last month.

This criticism most deeply stings the government, which sees its crowning achievement as bringing stability and ethnic reconciliation to the war-ravaged country.

"Whoever says Tutsis are killing Hutu or Hutus are killing Tutsis is trying to divert us from a good process we had started," Fatuma Ndagiza, head of Rwanda's Unity and Reconciliation commission, told Reuters.

Rwandan genocide suspect accused of thousands of deaths arrestedDec. 11, 2015 -- A prime suspect in the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s, who is accused of organizing the massacre of more than 20,000 people, was arrested this week, the United Nations announced.

Ladislas Ntaganzwa, 53, was one of nine suspects still at large and sought by the U.N. Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda, based in The Hague, Netherlands, until his arrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As mayor of the Nyakizu Commune in 1994 and a leader in the Hutu ethnic group, he allegedly oversaw the murder of thousands of the Tutsi population in his jurisdiction, a UN statement said. He also is accused of numerous incidents of rape and sexual violence against women.

Ladislas Ntaganzwa, left, accused of Rwandan genocide in 1994, was arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo courtesy the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals​

Ntaganzwa was first indicted in 1996 for crimes against humanity. The indictment mentions incidents in which he distributed weapons to civilians who shot into crowds of Tutsis at his direction. "He personally participated in these crimes," the indictment says.

Rwanda has requested Ntaganzwa be extradited to stand trial. More than 1 million people were killed in the Rwanda genocide, and the United States offered up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest of any of the nine suspects, including Ntaganzwa.

Useful Searches

About USMessageBoard.com

USMessageBoard.com was founded in 2003 with the intent of allowing all voices to be heard. With a wildly diverse community from all sides of the political spectrum, USMessageBoard.com continues to build on that tradition. We welcome everyone despite political and/or religious beliefs, and we continue to encourage the right to free speech.

Come on in and join the discussion. Thank you for stopping by USMessageBoard.com!